Yes, this is an actual conversation I heard on the Orange Line towards New Carrolton. Ah, Washington in the summer… bring on the interns and the summer associates. Some towns have sports talk. We have this (transcribed as closely as I could write on the back of an Express newspaper from my nearby seat)

Obvious summer associate 1 (let’s call him L1): The Harvard girl… how old is she?

L2 (yep, another one. I know, in DC. What are the odds?): 30 something.

—LONG PAUSE WHILE L1 AND L2 PONDER HOW OLD HARVARD GIRL IS. IT ALMOST DEFIES EXPLANATION! —

L2: She took some time off. [me and L1, thinking, “ahh. that explains it.”